Financial advisors weigh AI upside against demand for human advice

Morningstar research shows that more advisors are turning to generative AI for greater efficiency, while clients demand deeper advice, context and emotional support. Financial advisors rely on generative AI to manage their routine work, but remain cautious about how the technology fits into their role as relationship managers and behavioral coaches, according to Morningstar data….

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AI bot swarms threaten to undermine democracy

A joint essay with Daniel Thilo Schroeder and Jonas R. Kunst, based on a new paper on swarms with 22 authors (including myself) who just published in Science. (A preprinted version is hereand you can see WIRED’s coverage here.) Automated bots spreading misinformation have been a problem since the early days of social media, and…

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Gwinnett County budgets $2.5M to upgrade 911 call system; AI, texting features expected to be included

Gwinnett 911 adds AI for faster emergency response Gwinnett County is investing $2.5 million to upgrade its 911 system with artificial intelligence and next-generation 911 capabilities. This redesign will allow dispatchers to directly receive photos, videos and text while using AI for real-time translation and transcription in one of Georgia’s most diverse counties. The project,…

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Transformer architecture, the one innovation that supercharged AI: Best ideas of the century

Today’s most powerful AI tools – those that can summarize documents, generate artwork, write poetry or predict how incredibly complex proteins fold – all rest on the shoulders of the “transformer”. This neural network architecture, first announced in 2017 at a modest conference center in California, allows machines to process information in a way that…

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A consumer watchdog issued a warning about Google’s AI agent shopping protocol — Google says she’s wrong

Shortly after Google announced its new universal commerce protocol for AI-powered sales agents, a consumer economy watchdog sounded the alarm. In a post now viral on X Viewed nearly 400,000 times, Lindsay Owens wrote on Sunday: “Big/bad news for consumers. Google today announced how it plans to integrate shopping into its AI offerings, including search…

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